After breaking Betty’s heart by proposing to Veronica, Archie Andrews seems to be planning an Indian honeymoon of sorts. [ET]

Details are sketchy but it does seem like Raj will be instrumental in this visit.

Archie and gang go to a videogame lab run by Raj’s uncle. The lab has run out of ideas for games and the uncle hopes the Americans will provide inspiration. Instead Archie’s klutziness causes chaos, but it gives the Indian gamers their inspiration — a video game based on his pratfalls.

Archie, of course, is no stranger to India having traveled to India earlier (pictured below), with an intent to proselytize poor turban-wearing cow-selling Hindoos in Kashmir with Western music.

With a headline like “Archie’s visit to India shows the changing perception of Brand India”, The Economic Times seems to think this is a big deal in terms of global recognition of Brand India. Their theories, bordering on jingoism, seem to range anywhere from India’s booming economy to the success of Slumdog Millionaire. However, they miss one vital point: readers. Case in point, when Archie proposed to Veronica, the turn of events caused a huge stir among a large number of readers in India. The introduction of Raj not only represented a paradigm shift in terms of recognizing smaller minority communities in America but was also instrumental in generating some buzz among Indian readers. Archie comics is trying to woo Indian readers because there are so many of them. Archie comics have always been popular in India. Most English educated urban kids have probably read Archie comics at some point in their lives. Couple of decades back, these English educated Indian kids were more likely to borrow Archie comics from local libraries. These days they can afford to pay cold hard cash for the same ware. With this demographic only getting larger in numbers each day, India represents a huge market for Archie comics.

We hope Archie and, of course his desi friend, Raj, a safe trip to the des.

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